Field of the Embodiments
The various embodiments relate generally to audio signal processing and, more specifically, to techniques for voice affect modification.
Description of the Related Art
Effective communication plays an important role in developing and maintaining healthy social connections and business relationships. Nevertheless, when involved in conversations, many people have difficulty accurately conveying their emotional state and/or accurately determining the emotional states of those around them or of those directly involved in the conversations. For example, different cultures commonly express emotion via different types of facial expressions, hand gestures, body gestures, etc. Consequently, due to these cultural differences, people from different cultural backgrounds may have difficult effectively conveying their emotions to one another during a conversation. As another example, people with autism spectrum disorders commonly have difficult accurately conveying their emotions and interpreting the emotions of others when communicating or interacting with other people.
In an effort to enable people to more effectively convey their emotional state when communicating, some forms of electronic communication enable users to explicitly indicate their emotions via graphical symbols. For example, many text messaging platforms include graphical facial expressions (i.e., emoticons) that a user can select to graphically convey his or her emotional state to another user. Outside of these types of platforms, however, there currently are no systems available that automatically assist users in conveying and interpreting emotional states during live and/or in-person interactions. Consequently, due to their inability to effectively convey and interpret emotional states, many people continue to struggle with communications and social interactions, which inhibit their ability to develop and maintain healthy relationships.
As the foregoing illustrates, more effective techniques for conveying and interpreting the emotional states of people when communicating or interacting with one another would be useful.